An military soldier examines damages on the positioning of a bombing at a police station on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023.

AP

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AP

An military soldier examines damages on the positioning of a bombing at a police station on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023.

AP

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car at a police station’s important gate in northwest Pakistan early Tuesday, killing no less than 22 officers and wounding 32 others, and inflicting part of the constructing to break down upon influence, officers stated.

Some militants additionally opened hearth and a shootout ensued for hours between them and safety forces earlier than three attackers had been gunned down, native police officer Kamal Khan stated.

The loss of life toll from the assault was more likely to rise as a number of the officers had been in important situation, authorities stated. The our bodies of the 22 safety forces killed had been transferred to a hospital, Mohammad Adnan, a senior police official informed reporters.

Police launched a search operation within the surrounding space to apprehend the militants who bought away, officers stated.

The assault occurred in Dera Ismail Khan, a metropolis in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, Khan stated. The province is a former stronghold of the militant Pakistani Taliban group, also called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

The newly shaped militant group Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, or TJP — believed to be an offshoot of the TTP — claimed accountability for the assault in a press release, saying it focused the officers who had been on the police station. The assertion additionally claimed that 20 officers had been killed. However, this could not be independently verified.

A bigger variety of safety forces from throughout the nation have had a relentless presence recently on the Daraban police station the place they had been conducting intelligence-based operations towards militants within the space with assist from native police, stated Khan

Pakistan’s caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti denounced the onslaught in a press release and conveyed his condolences to those that had been “martyred”. He could not instantly affirm the variety of officers killed within the assault which he referred to as an act of “terrorism.”

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has witnessed an increase in violence with a number of lethal incursions this 12 months. In January, no less than 101 individuals had been killed when a suicide bomber focused a mosque in Peshawar.

The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up assaults on safety forces since 2022. Authorities say the insurgents have change into emboldened whereas residing brazenly in Afghanistan for the reason that Taliban takeover of that nation in 2021.

The TTP, although a separate group, is intently allied with the Afghan Taliban.

Dera Ismail Khan is positioned close to South Waziristan, a former sanctuary for militants. Pakistan’s military carried out a number of operations towards militants there after some attacked an army-run college, killing greater than 150 individuals, principally college kids, in 2014.